Read Online Spark: A Sky Chasers Novel by Amy Kathleen Ryan - Free Book Online

organize a detail of several teams to scour the ship for signs of Seth. Where he might be camping, what he might be planning. Finding him and his accomplices is our top priority.”
    Matt nodded.
    When the officers had all filed out with their new orders, Kieran noticed Arthur brooding in the corner. He knew Arthur was right about the election in principle, but practically speaking it would be a huge mess, because it wouldn’t just be about holding an election. He’d have to hold trials, too, not only for the people who released Seth but for Seth himself. There would be no way to avoid giving Seth his say in front of the entire crew, and Seth could be very persuasive. The whole thing could blow up in Kieran’s face.
    “Whoa,” Sarek said from his com station. He pulled his headset off and turned, his dark eyes round with surprise. “We’re being hailed by the New Horizon.”
    “What?” Arthur said.
    Kieran stood up. “Who is it? Who’s calling?”
    “Anne Mather,” Sarek said in awe.
    All three boys froze, staring at the flashing red light on Sarek’s com station. Kieran felt weak limbed. He’d tried to contact Anne Mather almost daily to demand the release of the prisoners, and all his hails had gone ignored. Why should she contact him now?
    “Send the link to my office,” Kieran said quietly, and stalked out of Central Command, down the corridor to the Captain’s suite, where he sat at the desk and put on his headset with trembling fingers. He took several deep breaths, then flicked the switch to enable the signal.
    His vid screen flickered to the image of a plump, middle-aged woman with abundant white hair swept into a bun on top of her head. She wore spectacles on the tip of her nose, and she had smooth skin, though her features were careworn. “Whom am I addressing?” she asked with clipped words.
    “Kieran Alden,” he said, trying to sound authoritative.
    “I’m Anne Mather,” she said with a cool smile.
    “What do you want?” Kieran said, his eyes on the porthole that looked out to a thick coating of stars in a black sky. He did not like looking at her. She was too poised, too confident. And her smile disgusted him.
    “There are no adults I can talk to?” she asked innocently.
    “No. You slaughtered our crew.”
    The glib smile fell from her face, and she bowed her head. “You’ll never believe me, but I didn’t expect so many of your crew to be in the shuttle bay. I thought loss of life would be minimal.”
    “It wasn’t,” he said bitterly.
    She blinked as though his glare burned her eyes. “You probably want to know why I called.”
    He only stared at her, waiting.
    “We saw that you veered off course last night. I’m calling to see if you need assistance.”
    “How kind of you,” Kieran said, his eyes snapping to hers. “But we’re doing just peachy back here. How are you?”
    “Ah, I miss that. Teenage sarcasm.” The woman chuckled. Kieran wished he could shatter her teeth for her. “I see you’ve increased your rate of acceleration to catch up to us. That’s going to have physical consequences for your crew, I hope you know.”
    “We’re young.” Kieran grinned. “It’ll only make us stronger.”
    “It’ll cause edema, circulation problems, and it’ll wear your joints out faster than you might imagine. And those are only the symptoms we know of.”
    “I’m betting that my crew can take it longer than your crew.”
    “It won’t work. You know I can’t let you catch up to us only to attack us. We need some kind of understanding before I let you near us.”
    “Then put our parents on a shuttle, send them back to us, and we’ll let you go.”
    “I would do that if I didn’t know a thing or two about human nature.”
    “What’s to know? You’ll be on your ship and we’ll be on ours, just like before.”
    “And when we get to New Earth? What then?” She raised one eyebrow.
    “Pick a continent.”
    “I have a responsibility to the people of this